


Longest Coffee Break Ever

by wandering_yoshida



Category: SOMA (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 21:12:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5885374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wandering_yoshida/pseuds/wandering_yoshida
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cath in trouble, a mechatronics engineer to the rescue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Longest Coffee Break Ever

Every single visit to the mess hall was a disaster. Catherine always preferred to eat by herself, in her lab. In the same time, she knew that some people would eventually start looking for her, bother her with their stupid fake-ass worry about her well-being. Therefore, Cath concluded that it is best to maintain a relatively regular level of presence in the mess hall, in order to avoid the much unwanted results of keeping too much of a low profile.

After picking up something to eat, she gave a second and a third thought to going back to the lab, then finally managed to convince herself to take a seat at an empty table. She looked around; there were only two tables occupied, one by Strohmeier, Cronstedt, and Sarang (by the looks, having a very meaningful conversation), the other by Koster and Strasky, whispering to each other and occasionally having a laugh. She must have had come too early, she thought – not that it was a problem, right the contrary, she was glad not to run into literally everybody.

Okay, ready, set, go, let’s eat. Nah, rather not, let’s get a coffee first. It was often a running joke at Pathos-II that most people only applied for the job because of the free coffee. Cath was really happy that Theta, being something like the command center of Pathos-II, had those big coffee machines that grind the beans in real-time instead of the instant stuff that sometimes tastes like potting soil (or ferrofluid, although she could not have known that). Agreeing with herself on getting a coffee, she stood up, walked to the machine, and pressed „latte” on the touchscreen. Usually the machine releases a recyclable plastic cup and pours the sweet stuff into it – usually.

„Oh, fuck yourself…”, exclaimed Catherine as the mixture of coffee and milk splashed all over her clothes, as well as the ground. Someone must have forgot their coffee in the machine, and her plastic cup went into the one already there, creating an awful mess in the process.

Peter Strasky, the gentleman he is, immediately jumped up from his chair to help out, but he was too late. „Oh no, the last person I want to see me like this”, Catherine thought as Imogen Reed stepped in the door, just like a guardian angel dispatched to Dr. Chun’s rescue.

„Got milk, huh?”, Imogen asked, looking at Cath for a short moment with a half-smile, then picked up an awfully large bunch of paper towels and started to clean up the mess. Catherine felt like such an idiot, standing there, frozen, coffee and milk all over her clothes. „Yeah, all over me”, she answered silently, like she was talking to herself. She really wanted to join the cleaning herself, mostly because she didn’t want to look like a jerk letting someone else do all the work, but the fact that Reed’s marvelous ass was facing right in her direction did not help following through with this intention at all. Cath was deeply immersed in the sight, almost shifting to another dimension of thoughts where time was much slower than in the real world. She somehow focused out and didn’t even realize that Imogen was already done with the floor, and gently tried to hand her some more paper towels for her clothes. When Catherine realized that Imogen was getting closer, she jumped backwards a little and almost fell over in her jelly legs. Seeing the unusual reaction, Imogen froze for a moment.

„Sorry, I didn’t mean to… I just wanted to give these to you.”

„No, I’m just… you’re… I’m so sorry. I’m just, just not…” Cath lowered her head and looking at the ground made the conversation even more uncomfortable.

„You’re not what?”, Imogen asked with eyes wide of curiosity.

„I’m just… weird around people, okay? And I thought… nevermind.” Well, she thought Reed was going to touch her, but she didn’t want to make a fool of herself by saying that out loud.

„Well, uh… what about you try to mop up the coffee from your clothes while I get you another coffee, maybe one for myself, and we could chat and eat together… if it’s not a problem for you.”

„Yes! No! I mean… it’s not a problem, you’re being so nice to me. I accept your invitation!” Catherine smiled, though the closer Imogen was, the more her heart was pounding like a jackhammer. She took the paper towels, sat back to her seat and tried cleaning up the mess on her clothes, though most of it had dried already. She fell deep into her thoughts again. „What am I thinking? What do I want?” She knew that even though she was always weird around people, it was never anywhere close to the level of weirdness she is experiencing near this specific colleague of hers. „Not that my stupid daydreams have any chance though”, she thought. Actually, she was really convinced for a while that Imogen Reed hated her with a passion. Now, she was wondering if this was just her own mind’s defense mechanism against having to do anything to find out otherwise. She didn’t have too much time to think about her hot redhead colleague though, as Imogen just sat down next to her with two cups of latte.

„Hey, I’ll let you take yours, I don’t want to… y’know, make you uncomfortable.” Her smile at Catherine was reassuring that even if she did actually find her a bit weird, she understood she generally didn’t like the proximity of other people that much.

„Thank you, really!”, Cath answered. She sipped a bit from the hot coffee and her eyes crossed Reed’s. „Wow, she seems so strong and confident”, she thought. Catherine was never specifically insecure about her body, but she often felt tiny with her being 5 feet tall. She thought that it’s kind of a bad cliché, but she was usually attracted to people she felt could be protective of her.

They spent like one and a half hour with talking about lots of different things, though Cath always tried to steer the conversation towards work-related topics and Imogen had to try steering it away from it. She became pretty convinced that opening up Catherine was probably the single hardest thing one can do on Pathos-II. In the same time, Catherine was convinced that the hardest thing she ever had to do was trying not to look or sound weird during this conversation. Anyway, she felt unusually eased up by the end, and she didn’t even notice that the whole other Pathos-II staff had their lunches while they were getting to know each other better. This ran a cold shiver down her spine and her period of elevated mood quickly turned into a strong feeling of insecurity again. She didn’t know if people were looking at her, she didn’t know if people were talking about her (or them?), she just… wanted to get back to her lab, to be alone, where her mind is constantly and precisely monitoring everything.

„Oh my, is it this late already? I have to get back to work”, she said and stood up from the table, walking to the recycler to put all the leftovers and garbage into it. Reed didn’t say anything, she got used to these surprising Catherine-twists during the one and a half hour that passed. Rather, she also got rid of her recyclable cup and started walking out, but then she stopped at the door and turned back.

„Hey, Catherine!”

„Yeah?”

„Milk stains get really bad real quick, don’t forget to change into something more… clean!” They both cracked smiles, then Imogen added: „I guess you don’t need my help with that!”

They laughed and Imogen left.

„Oh, actually, I wouldn’t mind you helping me get undressed right now”, Catherine thought, and she walked back to her lab with a content smile on her face.


End file.
